AirSoft

[crom-dubh]

Question.

If people are trying their best to promote paintball, then why are they insulting the vast majority of ballers (yup, the average joe or "punter")? I think calling them all "Rambo wannabe's" coz they enjoy running around the woods in cammo and call their markers guns is a load of poo. This is how paintball started and is still the most popular way of playing. Istead of cussing punters or even airsofters who may be inclined to move over to paintball try to see where they are coming from. Yeah everyone has their preferences, concept fields or woodland, but dont be elitist about it.
In some ways airsoft could be good for paintball. It hurts less and is cheaper. Ok its not as good (in my opinion) coz it relies on the honour system, but I am sure that quite a few airsofters will want to move over to paintball. And the more people ballin' the more it will be accepted.

just remember there will be a few peolpe out there who llok down on paintball in all its forms. I am sure that pi@@es us all off, so why should we look down on others for what they enjoy doing?

I am waiting patiently for the flaming.

BTW the reason airsoft can be full auto is that airsoft guns are classified as toys (Projectile produces less than 1 joule of energy) Whereas paintball marker fall under the catagory of air rifles and thus section 5 of the firearms act.

THIS POST IS NOT IN REPLY TO ANY OTHERS AND TO NOBODY IN PATICULAR. THESE JUST MY THOUGHTS.

 

[Fleisher]

You didn't read all my previous post then crom-dubh,I said the rambo element ie:- players who come dressed as extras from" Full metal jacket " a small but still daft element .Nobody including myself would be dumb enough to deny the obvious "playing Soldiers"connections in paintball but SOME PLAYERS take it too far,too seriously and as I've stated before if paintball is to be taken as a sport then tourny paintball will have to distance itself(rightly or wrongly) from rec ball.

I'm not gonna flame you for your views as what you say may be right but you and I have to accept the wider view that recballers like ourselfs will always be slight outcasts in the paintball fraternty,and Air soft more so.

 

[crom-dubh]

Fleicher

I wasnt aiming my post at you and I did read your posts and do agree with some aspects of them. I was mainly trying to point out that as a fringe sport, paintballers should stick together and not separate into little cliques. The rec baller of today is the tourney player of tommorrow. Rec ballers are the ones who go back to mates/work and regale people with their experiances. Telling people that they were snubbed by a few guys who had all their own kit and played on an inflatable field is not good in any way for the sport. So in my opinion (and its probably wrong) I think rec ball should be encouraged by the more experianced tourney players on the paintball field as well as the paintball forums.

 

[Fleisher]

Yup you're right trouble is I don't see paintballers as the problem ,more the industry in the UK ,and the distance most of it trys to keep from rec ball,using the playing soldiers thing as an excuse.
I wish we had the same outlook that the US has on paintball where both sides co-exist and work well together,but it'll never happen here .
I still think ANYBODY that plays paintball in a Combat helmet is a muppet.

 

[crom-dubh]

Ok fleicher I am with you on the combat helmet
You are right though. I dont know why it is still looked down upun in the UK

 

[Fleisher]

Its a dirty phrase but in the USA they have a different outlook to "guns and shooting"(there I've said it now ) which in all honesty paintball is,anybody that says differently is a liar,I think that to get Tourny paintball ,which will be the most acceptable form,recognised as a sport, the UK industry will try to get as far away from recball as possible just to make it acceptable to the non players in the UK and maker it a saleble media product which won't be a bad thing...trouble is they've been trying for as long as I've been playing(15 years) and their still not much nearer and yet the poor relation ,recball,still goes on and probablyalways will as as you rightly said its the original form of paintball.

Stand by to get flamed.
Flack jackets are nearly as bad as tin hats.

 

[crom-dubh]

I have recently organised a paintball day out for my work and there was so many people wanting to go. So the issue is not the popularity of paintball itself but how to promote tourney. The best way is to have punter sites having a sup air field. Another is to either A) sell PGI at sites or B) have more copies in news agents. Maybe demonstations of tourney teams at sites would be good with punters being allowed to use the tourney players markers.

In the end if the UK doesnt want to recognise paintbaal then f@ck it. Lets just enjoy the fact that we are a select few and everyone else is missing out.

 

[Fat Bob's Paintball]

It is interesting to read your views on how people get into tourny play. I always look at my own experiences when I have to think about something.

What you all seem to be forgeting is "FUN". The way to get people into paintball is to make them have fun.

Here is an e-mail sent out of the blue when we were accused of turning our backs on walk ons and tourny players.

You probabily wont remember me but I used to go to your site every now and then about 3/4 years ago. Your site was the first place I went paintballing and I have you to thank for the HUGE amounts of money I spend on the sport now I went with my friend Spud (aka Mark Reed) who introduced me and a group of our mates to the sport.

Now, me and the above mentioned group of mates are playing for JCS Inferno, and frequently mid to top of division A in Bullys series. We have also just finished 12th out of 81 at Campaign in the Novice bracket.

I would like to thanks you for the valuable insight and very friendly help and service you gave to me and my mates when we first started playing. Your site introduces people to the sport, and like me, some of them turn into the new blood of the tourney scene. Thanks for the memories. Hope to visit your site again soon.

Shuck (aka Andy Cruickshank)
YPC Gold card number 2479 (not sure if its still valid)

P.S Just seen your website and the LCD Matrix rock! I have one and its absolutly awesome. Best gun in the world...........at the moment

Although tournys are fun and intense they are of little or no interest at all to someone who has never played before.

The sites who run games for first timers, who use camo suits, who have £2500 worth of predator running around so people think they are Arnie or whoever are the ones who make the sport grow and eventually the people who love paintball will find competitions and tourny play themselves,

Andy

 

[crom-dubh]

I am not forgetting fun and my point was to ensure that new players do have fun. This will not be achieved if they think that they are being looked down upon by more experienced players. I do agree with you though Bob, it is rare to get straight into tourney and the crux of the problem is how do we get more people into tourney? One of the major problems is that to a new guy it seems that to be able to compete at a higher level you have to fork out over a grand in kit. I know this is not nessecarily true but that is how it seems. Then add to that the fact that many experienced players talk about "punter hunting" then the prospect of walking onto a tourney field doesnt seem so inviting. I was lucky when I got into tourney. I had 5 mates all in the same boat. Plus I found a great bunch of people to ease me into it. Not everyone is so lucky. So if we want to expand the "sports" element of paintball then we all have a responsibility to be as accomodating to newbies as possible. A friend of mine who was quite experienced at ballin' was doing a punter day with a few mates. He was looking at getting a new marker at the time so when he saw a few guys from a tourney team training on the same site, who were selling some kit, he had a stroll over to see what was on offer. When he asked about what marker they were selling , he was told to go away as he wouldnt know how to use a shocker and should stick to site markers. All because he was wearing site overalls. Not a good way to promote tourney huh?

 

[Hobbes88]

Originally posted by Liz

The only environmentally unfriendly part of the sport used to be the old CO2 12 grams, which I haven't seen for many years.

Fully-auto may be allowed in the US, but it's illegal in the UK under the Firearms Act.

I might be thinking of something increadibly different, or i might be right on target(no pun intended). Maybe in UK it is harder to get, but i can easily go out to the store right now and get a box of 25 12 grams. As a matter-o-fact, i have a box sitting in my room right now, and i also have some friends who use them(he has a pump gun, and a 45 round hopper, so it all in all the gun is pretty small).